RCEP

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a so-called mega-regional economic agreement being negotiated between the 10 ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) governments and their six FTA partners: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

The ninth negotiating round took place in Nay Pyi Taw, Burma, in August 2015. An earlier intention of concluding the talks by the end of 2015 has now been overtaken by a vaguer deadline.

Concerns about the RCEP have been voiced in a number of contexts and cover a range of issues. As with many negotiations, they have been conducted with a high degree of secrecy. A 2015 leaked text on intellectual property rights (IPR) proposed by Japan’s negotiators (and apparently supported by South Korea) confirms the concern that the proposed RCEP IPR provisions resemble the TRIPs-plus provisions in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Patient groups including the Delhi Network of Positive People and the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition-South Asia have held rallies outside the Embassy of Japan in New Delhi to protest the risks that the RCEP poses to access to medicines.

The RCEP appears to overlap and compete with the higher-profile TPP agreement which has become heavily influenced by the US’ economic and geopolitical agenda in the Asia-Pacific. (7 of RCEP’s member governments belong to the TPP.) Additionally, China has recently decided to champion the Free Trade Area for the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), an old US-initiated proposal to have a single free trade agreement covering all APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) member states. So the competition and overlap are between the three deals: RCEP, TPP and FTAAP.

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Just a week after signing the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) with nine other countries, Singapore and Australia vowed to “redouble” efforts to conclude an ambitious free-trade agreement among 16 Asia-Pacific countries this year.

In a speech at the Malaysia Business Forum, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez revealed that the RCEP will have substantial documents ready before the end of Singapore’s chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. This was agreed upon by trade ministers of RCEP negotiating countries in their recent meeting in Singapore.

Following the signing of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) last week, Malaysia is now shifting its focus to conclude the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), said International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.

With dairy being the stumbling block in getting a full free trade agreement (FTA) between India and New Zealand across the line anytime soon, the in-negotiation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), maybe the way forward for India-NZ trade ties to grow.

Malaysia’s Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, said he was confident the meeting, which would be held in Singapore, would serve as a platform to bridge the gap between Asean and other countries.

The Philippines is demanding its fellow negotiating-countries in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to seriously commit to a speedy conclusion of their trade deal, as the latest round of talks still failed to progress beyond trade in goods modalities.

CPI(M) member of Assembly Rakesh Singha on Monday urged the Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur that he should take up the matter with the Union Government so that Himachali Apple could be brought under Special Category product to over come duty free import of apple to Indian markets.

Japan’s role in RCEP negotiations appears to have been shaped by its participation in the TPP. Japan is now championing for expanded intellectual property right provisions which may block access to affordable medicines

India will register its unhappiness with the “inadequate’’ fresh offers in services made by partner countries negotiating the mega regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) as members converge in Indonesia this week for a crucial round of talks.

As the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) made significant headway in January, negotiating countries in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are pressured to conclude the trade deal, and they try to make progress in the ongoing talks in Indonesia.

India must resist pressure from Japan and South Korea in RCEP for the elevated levels of intellectual property provisions and make sure the deal doesn’t limit the production of life-saving generic drugs in India and for many other developing countries of the world.

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